Hollywood and Video Game Movies

This article ran in The Daily Cardinal on Wednesday February 22, 2006.

The article link.

Many movies originate from another source: books, stage productions and occasionally even video games. So prevalent is the trend to base a movie on a previously existing story that screenplays for these movies have come to be recognized by their own Academy Award. And when judged against original cinematic ideas, these adaptations have faired quite well. Except for those movies based on games.

So why do movies based on video games suck so much? The reason is easy to identify, but the causes for it are a little more elusive. Don’t get me wrong: sometimes they’re good. Actually, that’s not true—they’re all terrible.

It’s not because video games are an unpopular medium. Video games out-gross box office receipts in the United States. Is it because video games aren’t really vessels for story telling? Games can tell stories, but compared with other media they are kind of flimsy and not very well-developed. But that’s not the entire problem: Good screenwriters could weave a meaningful story into the fabric of any fantastic situation, and it would probably work.

Movies based on games are bad because people making movies don’t really care about or respect games. The suits that green light projects, like the recent movie “Doom,” know that the films will make money no matter how bad they are. Movies rarely lose money when you factor in ancillary markets, international grosses, DVD releases, etc., so one more film out the door is a few million in their pockets at the end of the day.

The really great films, however, are labors of love. They have competent directors, writers that know how to compile a good screenplay, good production values and actors that can make us care about characters that were once polygonal and only shot aliens. Even an average movie based on a game would be a change of pace.

But instead of simple mediocrity, we get directors like Uwe Boll who have a penchant for making really, really bad movies based on video games. His last three films, “House of the Dead,” “Alone in the Dark” and “BloodRayne,” have been rated six, one and 7 percent, respectively, on RottenTomatoes.com. For those of you who don’t know, that’s bad. And he’s got five more game-based films in the pipe, including what’s sure to be an abomination unto the Lord in the form of a “Far Cry” movie.

Games and movies are good or bad for different reasons. Movies need to engage the viewer emotionally. After that, action and CGI effects, if necessary, are icing on the cake. Games on the other hand, are a lot like porno—it’s all about the action. Yes, there’s a scenario, but it’s a secondary objective. Look at “Tetris.” One of the most successful games of all time gave you no reason to play, it was just fun. Just because a game is good doesn’t mean porting it to the big screen almost verbatim is a good idea.

Blockbuster director extraordinaire Peter Jackson is acting as producer on the upcoming “Halo” movie. Let’s hope he can deliver an at least passable sci-fi blockbuster and avoid the eventual DVD being tossed into the bin with 1993’s “Super Mario Brothers.”

A FPS Retrospective

This article ran in the Daily Cardinal on Wednesday February 8, 2006

The story link.

With games like “Far Cry,” “F.E.A.R.” and of course “Half-Life 2” doing so much for the first-person shooter genre, it is easy to forget the true pioneers. The following games earn recognition not only because they are really great games, but because each one contributed something to the industry, either via software or hardware. Come back with me and let’s revisit the top five most important FPSs of all time.

5. Halo

There’s not much that can be said about this game that people don’t already know. Aside from single-handedly assuring us that the Xbox would stick around for a console generation, “Halo” also perfected the console FPS experience. With top-notch level design, an enemy AI that seemed too lethal to be a computer, a well-told narrative and a multiplayer component that people still play to this day, “Halo” has earned its place in history.

4. Quake II

Yes, the aiming system was a little wonky at times, but that’s pretty much it in terms of flaws. “Quake II” comes in at No. 4 because of the superior technical achievement it was in its day. Fully 3-D enemies, dynamic lighting, a mouse-based look function and scarily good LAN multiplayer simply outclassed everything else at the time. And the code was so well written, pocket calculators could probably have run the game. After this, game developers could no longer get away with a slapdash running-down-hallways simulator and call it an FPS game.

3. GoldenEye 007

What “Halo” finished, “GoldenEye 007” started. Up until Bond strode onto the N64, FPS games were the domain of the PC, but this title proved once and for all the viability of consoles for the genre. Due to its success, the next wave of game machine controllers came equipped with a second stick for controlling the look axis after “007” utilized the then-strange joystick so well. The multiplayer was so good that many more titles, like “Halo,” would include some variation on the game type. And of course four controller ports, which let more people partake in the fun, made their way into current generation systems.

2. Doom

Believe it or not, but before “Doom” FPS games were relatively tame. Nobody got worked up over the simple graphics, single plane levels and enemies that were pretty indistinguishable. But then everything literally went to Hell, in a good way. The graphics were sharp for the time, the lighting was eerie, the levels weren’t just rooms and hallways and the action was very intense. There was also the fact that “Doom” became one of the first video games to be a scapegoat for troubled, violent kids. That, I suppose, is technically bad, but it only goes to show you the power of the game and how important it was at the time.

1. Half-Life

No conversation of first-person shooters would be complete without mention of the incomparable “Half-Life.” Widely regarded as the greatest FPS of all-time, the list of qualities “Half-Life” introduced or improved upon are innumerable. “HL” did away with levels and made the game one long, continuous trek through its setting. Before, an FPS was usually not much more than a shooting gallery, but “HL” introduced a plot. The graphics were stunning, the controls impeccable and the puzzles (also rare in a FPS) were not of the mundane “find the key to advance” variety. But perhaps the best thing “HL” did was allow its source code to be modified and released in what is still the most popular online game ever: “Counter Strike.”

Along with Mario-esque platformers, first-person shooters are generally what people think of when they think about video games. If you consider yourself even a casual gamer and haven’t had a chance to play all of these titles do yourself a favor and get them ... now.